Get your kicks with Israeli tricks

In these times of increasingly antisocial behaviour - whether perpetrated by burglars, binge-drinkers or householders - one needs to know how to look after oneself. Martial arts are two-a-penny; self-defence is where it's at, and krav maga is the name to be dropping between punches.

Adam Gorlick explained in New York's Newsday: "Krav maga, which is Hebrew for 'contact combat', is the creation of Imi Lichtenfeld, a Bratislavan Jew who fought with a paramilitary organisation during Israel's 1948 war for independence ... He developed a system based on the instincts and reactions he had honed as a street fighter warding off anti-semitic attacks while growing up." His methods are now used by the Israeli Defence Force, as well as the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Swedish army, and Jennifer Lopez (Australia's Sunday Magazine). So what makes krav maga different to, say, karate?

"Comparing krav maga to something like karate is like comparing slam dancing to ballet. It employs kicks in the groin, elbows in the jaw and pokes in the eye - things that it's better to know and not need than to need and not know," said Renee Stovsky in the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

A particular kind of person will enjoy it, said Rachel Resnick in the Los Angeles Times: "aggressive types who want to bash some brains".

"It's rough, tough, down and dirty," panted Oliver Bennett in the Times. He had started attending classes because "krav maga touches something primal: the need to defend yourself and the development of the animal instinct to do so ... It doesn't necessarily look good ... but it leaves you better equipped to handle all manner of unpleasantness."

Gorlick spoke to one krav maga teacher who agreed: "You're going to get a great workout doing this. But what you're really going to learn is how to survive."

Catherine Porter tried a class for the Toronto Star. "I'm not a girl who's had many knives stabbed at her, plastic or not. And I'd like to keep it that way ... Pacifist this, baby!"